In 2023, global users spent around 3.5 hours daily accessing the internet via mobile, as well as 2.55 hours on average using the internet via laptop or PC devices. Between 2015 and 2023, the number of hours spent accessing the internet via PC among digital users worldwide decreased when compared to the time spent doing so on mobiles and smartphones.

Millennials were the largest generation group in the U.S. in 2023, with an estimated population of 72.7 million. Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials recently surpassed Baby Boomers as the biggest group, and they will continue to be a major part of the population for many years. The rise of Generation Alpha Generation Alpha is the most recent to have been named, and many group members will not be able to remember a time before smartphones and social media. However, the group already makes up around 42.75 percent of the U.S. population, and they are said to be the most racially and ethnically diverse of all the generation groups, with the oldest Generation Alpha members aging into adolescents this year. Boomers vs. Millennials The number of Baby Boomers, whose generation was defined by the boom in births following the Second World War, has fallen by around seven million since 2010. However, they remain the second-largest generation group, and aging Boomers are contributing to steady increases in the median age of the population. Meanwhile, the Millennial generation continues to grow, and one reason for this is the increasing number of young immigrants arriving in the United States.

Data from a survey held in August 2022 in the United States revealed that the most popular news source among millennials was social media, with 45 percent of respondents reporting daily news consumption on social networks. This was more than double the share who got their news via radio. When it comes to trust, though, social media does not fare well.

Social media and news consumption

As adults of all ages spend more and more time on social media, news consumption via this avenue is likely to increase, but something which could affect this trend is the lack of trust in the news consumers encounter on social platforms. Although now the preferred option for younger audiences, social networks are among the least trusted news sources in the United States, and concerns about fake news remain prevalent.

Young audiences and fake news

Inaccurate news is a major problem which worsened during the 2016 and 2020 presidential election campaigns and the COVID-19 pandemic. A global study found that most Gen Z and Millennial news consumers ignored fake coronavirus news on social media, but almost 20 percent interacted with such posts in the comments section, and over seven percent shared the content. Younger news consumers in the United States were also the most likely to report feeling overwhelmed by COVID-19 news. As younger audiences were the most likely to get their updates on the outbreak via social media, this also made them the most susceptible to fake news, and younger generations are also the most prone to ‘doomscrolling’, an addictive act where the reader pursues and digests multiple negative or upsetting news articles in one sitting.

In 2019, 70 percent of Generation Z indicated that making money was very important to them in terms of life goals, while 60 percent of Millennials said the same. This is compared to 12 percent of Generation Z and seven percent of Millennials who said that being famous was very important to them.

As of September 2023, YouTube as the most popular social media platform for global users, with 97 percent of respondents reporting to use the popular video platform. YouTube was also the most popular social media among Gen Z users, with 96 percent of respondents in this age group reporting to have used the video platform as of the examined period. Facebook's usage kept steady among among the general digital population, with around eight in 10 reporting to have used the platform. In comparison, the social media's popularity was in free fall among gen Z users with only four in 10 among those surveyed reporting to engage with the Meta-powered platform.

A 2024 global survey explored what Gen Z and millennial travelers thought of destinations they visited after seeing it on social media or promoted by an influencer. While 26 percent of the sample mentioned that the destination was somewhat better than expected, a quarter said that it was just as they had imagined it. Meanwhile, only nine percent of respondents mentioned that the visited travel destination was somewhat worse than expected.

Video content consumption habits vary significantly across generations in the United States, with social video and live streaming emerging as the dominant format for younger viewers. Among Gen Z, nearly half of respondents to a 2023 survey preferred social video and live streams, while this was the case for one third of millennials. Furthermore, millennials were generally more likely to choose TV shows and movies as their most popular content type than Gen Z.

According to a survey conducted among consumers in the United States, 80 percent of Millennial respondents said sustainability was a driving factor behind their purchasing decisions. Gen Z respondents driven by sustainability amounted to 66 percent.

In 2023, more than half of millennials worldwide said they use search engines, such as Google, when doing research on products they intend to buy. This makes the search engine by far the most commonly used source of information for product research among this generation. Gen Z also frequently used search engines, but noticeably utilized social media platforms more than older generations.

In 2023, Millennials were the largest generation group in the United States, making up about 21.71 percent of the population. However, Generation Z was not far behind, with Gen Z accounting for around 20.69 percent of the population in that year.

From 2016 to 2020, the share of younger millennials (25 to 34 years old) who live with their parents increased, with men much more likely to stay in their parents' home for longer. In 2023, however, fewer millennials were reported to live at home in comparison to previous years, with 11.4 percent of millennial women and 18.8 percent of millennial men living in their parents' home.

As of September 2024 in the United Kingdom, 98 percent of Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2012, were using social media. The same was true for 97 percent of millennials in the country. Overall, 92 percent of Gen X were on social networks, as were 86 percent of Baby boomers.

According to a study of iOS users in the United States, 90 percent of millennials used the Apple App Store. Amazon followed as the second-most used shopping app, with a usage rate of 82 percent among mobile commerce shoppers of the millennial generation.

There were approximately 14.69 million millennials in the United Kingdom in 2023. This generation, sometimes called Generation Y were born between 1981 and 1996 and are mainly the children of the post-war Baby Boomer generation. As of 2023, Millennials were the largest generational cohort in the UK, followed by Generation X at 14.04 million people, Baby Boomers at 13.57 million, and then by Generation Z at 13.2 million. The most numerous single-year of age for Millennials, and the UK as a whole, was 35 at 956,116. Boomerang generation The first cohort of millennials came of age at the turn of the century and have almost certainly been heavily influenced by the growth of internet accessibility during this time. The economic challenges faced by this generation may have a relation to the increasing share of young adults who live with their parents in the UK. This has led to the perhaps unfair, characterization of millennials as the boomerang generation, who failed to grow-up and mature. Some of these negative stereotypes regarding Millennials have since shifted to the next youngest generation, Generation Z, who have started to enter the workplace since the mid-2010s. Generation Remain One of the main challenges that British millennials currently face are their prospects after Brexit. Although the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, there were clear divisions between regions, classes and age-groups. Most millennials voted to remain in the Brexit referendum with 73 percent of people aged 18 to 24, and 62 percent of those aged 25 to 34 voting to remain. In the next UK election, the majority of 25 to 49-year-olds intend to vote for the Labour Party, with only a slight majority of those over 65 planning to vote for the Conservative Party. Millennials also still appear to oppose Brexit, with approximately 65 percent of 25 to 49-year-olds believing Brexit to have been the wrong decision.

A global study released in June 2021 revealed that younger adults were more likely to use social media as a way to access news, as 34 percent of consumers aged under 35 used social media for news, compared to 26 percent of all adults. Gen Z or Millennials also demonstrated a lower level of engagement with direct news brands, and just three percent used email for news.

In 2021, messaging and video sharing platform Snapchat was more popular than TikTok among Gen Z users in the United States. TikTok counted around 37 million users who were born between 1997 and 2012, while Instagram reported around 33 million users in the same period. Snapchat, which counted 42 million Gen Z users, is projected to reach 49.5 million users in the examined demographic by 2025. Overall, platforms such as Pinterest, Twitter and Reddit had significantly less users amongst this age group.

According to a survey run in Spain in March 2023, 86 percent of Millennial respondents used WhatsApp, making it the most popular social media platform in the country among that population group. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube followed closely, with an audience reach of 75 percent, 74 percent, and 73 percent respectively.

According to streaming viewers, looking for content to watch is easier on social media and after hearing about them from creators. In fact, over half of Gen Z and millennials stated in a 2023 survey that they spend too much time searching for something to watch on their streaming platforms. Younger consumers are generally more likely to find TV shows and movies on social media and from content creators to watch.

According to a survey carried out in 2023, 28 percent of Millennials in the U.S. mentioned that they had been a victim of verbal/emotional abuse. An equal share of Millennials stated that they experienced a lack of a healthy work environment. This statistic illustrates the share of Millennials in the U.S. who experienced selected life events with the strongest links to worsening mental health.

A 2024 global survey explored the interest level of Gen Z and millennials in a series of travel experiences. While 13 percent of respondents reported being most interested in attending sport stadiums and sporting events when traveling, eight percent of the sample mentioned visiting filming locations.